by John Shinal, Special for USA TODAY

by John Shinal, Special for USA TODAY

SAN FRANCISCO - Halfway through Google's quarterly conference call in late April, CEO Larry Page sounded a bit exasperated after a stock analyst asked him how much the company planned to invest in some of its more-speculative ideas.

"I feel that when I say anything, I always get asked that question," Page answered, just after he'd spent several minutes talking enthusiastically about self-driving cars, Google glasses and other projects that as yet contribute nothing to the company's bottom line.

Wall Street concerns over such spending are understandable after Google reported that Motorola Mobility, the phone maker acquired by the search giant one year ago for $12.5 billion, had an operating margin of -18% in the first quarter. And that figure excluded stock compensation charges.

In fact, Motorola's results, charges related to its acquisition, and Page's rapid pace of investment all helped to push down Google's overall operating margin significantly during the quarter, to 25% of revenue from 32% a year ago, when all expenses are included.

It's enough to make an investor wonder why Google - whose $50 billion in revenue and eye-popping $32 a share in net income last year were due wholly to its online ad business - would want to be in any hardware business at all.

Yet as the company gets set to host its annual development conference this week, the thousands of eager software developers who will gather in San Francisco for Google I/O offer proof that what seems zany one year can become a highly profitable business just a few years later.

That's because every good piece of software needs a hardware platform to run on, and Google is continually pushing for a world where online advertisers can find consumers no matter where or how they access the Internet.

Google's ability to maintain its sales and profit growth as the online world goes mobile is proof of the success of what it calls its "multiscreen" strategy.

When Google acquired a small company called Android in 2005, few outside of Silicon Valley even knew what a smartphone operating system was.

Eight years later, Google's mobile OS is the most popular around the globe, and millions of consumers have smartphones optimized to show Google ads.

As Page said on the conference call three weeks ago, in explaining Google's investments in speculative projects, "there's not much competition, because no one else is crazy enough to try."

This year, the newest and most speculative hardware platform at Google's I/O conference will be a computer for your face, which the company calls Google Glass.

Page couldn't hide his excitement when he talked about the project on the April call.

"I get chills when I use a product that is the future, and that happens when I use Glass," he said then.

Within months of its public debut, the Internet-ready, half-pair of glasses that makes a wearer look like a Borg character extra in a Star Trek movie already has inspired strong reactions - both pro and con.

In early April, two of Silicon Valley's most prominent venture capital firms agreed to share with Google's own venture unit all funding proposals from startups that use Google Glass in their business plan.

(While the partnership, called the Glass Collective, garnered headlines, it also raised the question of why entrepreneurs would want to let three different VC partnerships compare notes on their startups, rather than force the firms to compete for an equity stake, as is common practice among VCs.)

On the downside for Google Glass, one Seattle bar made a bold statement - and acquired a lot of publicity - when it banned the device over concerns for the privacy of its patrons.

Raising privacy concerns is nothing new for Google, of course, something understood by those who had their home wireless networks invaded without their knowledge by Google's Street View project in 2010.

The company has paid fines both in Europe and the U.S. over Street View, but the fine amounts were mere rounding errors for Google, which is still making money hand-over-fist selling ads alongside Street View results - and all of its other services.

While Google's strange glasses are creating a lot of buzz, it's another new product, called Google Now, which may prompt developers who attend this year's I/O show to write apps that will help boost Google's bottom line sooner, rather than later.

As a voice-based digital assistant that's a rival to Apple's Siri, Google Now is an advance in a technology that's at the heart of Google's success: Internet search.

Now that the company has released tools for developers of its Chrome mobile Web browser that take advantage of voice capabilities, Page says "we'll be amazed" in the future to find that Internet computing once required cumbersome human actions such as typing on a keyboard or clicking a mouse.

Then again, we may all someday marvel that anyone ever had a problem with the Borg.

John Shinal has covered tech and financial markets for 15 years at Bloomberg Businessweek, San Francisco Chronicle, Dow Jones MarketWatch, Wall Street Journal Digital Network and others. Follow him on Twitter: @johnshinal.